Losing Nonstop Flights Affects Local Business

Roger Nielsen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:30:52 +0000

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), headquartered in Portland, represents the German automotive giant’s global truck brands Freightliner, Western Star, and Detroit Diesel. As a member of the world’s largest producer of commercial trucks, our staff is networked with Daimler colleagues across Europe and Asia. Our professionals are responsible for engineering, purchasing, and information technology. Our senior executives from both sides of the Atlantic comprise a large portion of the business class passengers on the now-suspended Lufthansa service. These non-stop flights from Portland to Frankfurt, followed by a 70-minute ride on the ICE German bullet train, brought our colleagues into the heart of Daimler’s headquarters in Stuttgart, allowing us to be ready for work on the morning of arrival. The time savings alone increased the collaboration between our American and German staff members, and we were able to accelerate the introduction of common products, processes and IT solutions across the Daimler world.

Around the holidays, our 90+ German expats in Portland filled two planes alone with their family members, returning to Europe for their annual Home Leave.

With the loss of the non-stop service, the increase in both travel time and travel cost has cast a burden upon our staff members, driving an inequity into their pursuits of the perfect Life-Work balance. The one or two days of productivity gained through less fatigue and the shorter travel time is sorely missed. The second-best alternate 1-stop routing choices across Amsterdam, San Francisco, Atlanta, Vancouver, Denver, Seattle, Chicago, Washington D.C or even Detroit are welcome, but we long for the return of the non-stop service between Frankfurt and Portland.

Roger Nielsen
Chief Operating Officer
Daimler Trucks North America

I Fly Nonstop » Roger Nielsen

Losing Nonstop Flights Affects Local Business